ARTIST NEWS

Critical Acclaim for Peter Grimes with Deutsche Oper Berlin

Klassik.com: “Musical director Donald Runnicles even extracted the score’s finest somber shades. His accuracy at this makes one believe to be hearing several passages for the first time.”

“The winds, especially the brass, put articulatory fineness and splendid achievements in terms of intonation together. One could not possibly hear this any better.

“Runnicles seems to be constantly decelerating the music – that detailed are the sounds one can hear from the orchestra pit.”

“At the same time Runnicles’ conducting is, without any dynamic loss, pleasant for the singers in such a way that no syllable gets lost on stage.”

Berliner Morgenpost: “Relentlessly Donald Runnicles gets the performance to speak in a haunting way. He takes Britten at his word. He lets him sing out his agonies, anxieties through the mask of Peter Grimes.”

Der neue Merker: “Maestro Donald Runnicles, who has been conducting this piece with his heart and soul for 25 years now, contributes, together with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, to the anxiety one feels in the audience.”

“Afterwards rapturous acclamation and standing ovations, especially for Christopher Ventris, Michaela Kaune, Donald Runnicles and the choir with William Spaulding. Even the team of the stage direction receives nothing else but applause – an exception at the Deutsche Oper Berlin - which they fully deserved. All in all a great performance which brings the opera house to a higher league!”

Frankfurter Rundschau: “Under Donald Runnicles’ conducting the orchestra becomes, even before the choir, the star of the evening. The lavish abundance of music does not become redundant in his stunningly thrilling conducting because especially in this abundance the ambivalence, the complex ambiguity of the atmosphere and feelings constantly activate the listener’s excitement all over again.”

TAZ: “Conductor Donald Runnicles lets the orchestral suite shine in its complete beauty. The singing becomes episodes of one long tale.”

Kulturradio des rbi: “If Donald Runnicles feels the need to persuade the Berliners of their Britten, he is actually bringing owls to Spree-Athens.”

“To play Peter Grimes was Donald Runnicles’ wish. The enigmatic parable of an outsider leaves open what the fisherman did to his dead apprentice boy. The play, however, does not really match the conductor’s spirit. One clearly has to say: Runnicles does not succeed in substantiating this piece’s mystery. He conducts too mechanical and too loud. Surprisingly, there is a lack of understatement